AROUND THE LEAGUES : Monroe Girls Coach Threatens to Flunk His Truant Players

Instead of varsity letters, Monroe girls basketball players may receive F’s on their report cards if Coach Alexander Dane has his way.

Dane complained last week that not all of his players were practicing, especially over the holiday vacation, and he is considering failing them. “It’s a lousy thing to have to do,” Dane said. “I have to keep asking myself, ‘Should I do it, or shouldn’t I?’ ”

At the 15-week reporting period, Dane gave three F’s and two D’s. Did that do the trick?

“The girls I gave them to started showing up and are very eager all of a sudden,” Dane said.

Beyond the stars: Taft (8-3) and Kennedy (8-2) are best known for their star players: Times All-Valley guards Kevin Franklin and Marcus Malone, respectively. Franklin and Malone were named most valuable players when Taft and Kennedy won tournament championships last week, but the teams are more than just one player. For Taft, forward Vernon Middleton (11-point average) and point guard Jason Bromberg (7 assists per game) have helped overcome the loss to injury of Quincy Watts. For Kennedy, forwards Clarence Williams (10.5 points; 9 rebounds) and Leon Ware (12.9 points) have eased Malone’s burden.

Future stars: Crespi has won only one game, much to Coach Paul Muff’s chagrin. Any time he wants his spirits brightened, however, Muff just gazes into the future by watching a Crespi junior varsity game where center Ryan Nordyke (6-3) and forward Matt Luderer (6-1), both freshmen, hold court. “These kids are good players,” Muff said. “I could see them playing varsity next year.” . . . Rio Mesa Coach Steve Wolf said having 6-5 freshman forward Eric Thomas is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “He has a knack for offensive rebounding and getting open,” Wolf said. “If you had a textbook on offensive rebounding, he would be it.” Thomas, who is averaging 20 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, also excels in the classroom. “He’s an honor student,” Wolf said. “All you do is say something once, that’s all it takes.”

Light looks at losing: Royal Coach Gene Hatton takes a blindly optimistic approach to his team’s 0-9 record. “It’s been a great season,” he said. “We’re enjoying it. The kids are keeping their heads up.” . . . Hart Coach Doug Michelson is disappointed with his team’s slow start, but he’s happy with his recent decision to switch to a three-guard lineup, featuring Steve Valenzuela, Mike Michelson and Jim Bonds. Valenzuela leads the team with an average of 14 points per game, and most of his shots come from the perimeter. Michelson, the coach’s son, is averaging nine points and is 91% on free throws. Bonds, who missed the team’s first seven games because of football, is averaging nearly five assists per game.

Bench warrant: Calabasas Coach Bill Bellatty had seen enough. The Coyotes were three games into the season and his team was still falling flat in the third quarter. The remedy? Forget halftime speeches in the locker room. In fact, forget the locker room. “I think I might have been telling more than they could handle,” Bellatty said. “So now we just stay out there on the bench at halftime. I let them rest for a couple of minutes, then I talk to them for three minutes or so, and then we start warm-ups for the second half.” The result? “We came right out and scored 50 points a couple of times in the Chaminade tournament,” Bellatty said. “Ever since I’ve been here we’ve been terrible in the whole third quarter. After we switched, we’ve gone 8-4.” . . . Two Frontier League coaches are fed up with its five-team format. Not only does it mean two byes, but each team plays only eight league games. Consequently, it is difficult to schedule games late in the season. Bellatty complained that his team had to play 11 games in a 17-day stretch. On Friday, Agoura plays a nonleague game at Mary Star in San Pedro. “I didn’t have a choice,” Agoura Coach Bob LaBelle said. “Everybody else is playing league games.”

Flying the coop: Rich Montanio has resigned as football and baseball coach of the Chaminade Eagles, but will continue to teach at Chaminade junior high. “I made the decision a couple months ago,” said Montanio, who had coached the football team for eight years and baseball for 12 years. “There were philosophical differences that I would rather not discuss. But there are no hard feelings. I love Chaminade and remain close friends with the principal and athletic director.” Athletic Director Bernie Kyman will coach the baseball team and Rich Lawson, a former assistant at Pierce College, has been named by Kyman to head the football team.

Don’t start me up: Chris Weber continues to stand out at Grant, as long as Coach Howard Levine doesn’t use him as a starter. “He must be averaging 12 points a game off the bench,” Levine said. Weber’s two worst games came as a starter, when he scored just four points in two games. “For some reason, he’s just one of those guys that gets into the flow of the game better when he isn’t starting.” . . . During the Hart tournament, Saugus forward Jackson Clark tried to save a loose ball against Westlake bouncing it off the legs of opposing center Dave Heckmann. As he hung in midair over the baseline, Clark missed Heckmann and the ball bounced 18 feet straight into the basket, giving Westlake two points. Westlake used the points in a 79-72 win.

Girls basketball: The longest Valley-area winning streak in any sport probably will grow Friday when Kennedy plays host to El Camino Real in a Valley 4-A League opener. Kennedy, the defending City 4-A champion, has won 80 straight league games under Coach Craig Raub. Were Valley League opponents playing in tournaments during the two-week holiday? Not quite. None except El Camino Real even practiced the past two weeks. Meanwhile, Kennedy (7-3) played Southern Section powers Alemany, Louisville, Buena and Simi Valley. “We’ll be a lot better because of our nonleague competition,” Raub said. “I don’t know if any team will be good in our league. I don’t even know who the kids are. They don’t play in summer leagues or holiday tournaments.” Instead, they lounged. Said Cleveland Coach Kathy Davila: “Last year during vacation we played in a tournament and one-fourth of my team didn’t show up. Many of the girls don’t live in the Valley and can’t get transportation to the school.”